Mao Zedong was the founding father of the People's Republic of China and the leader of the Communist Party of China. He led the Chinese Revolution, a protracted armed struggle against the Kuomintang regime and the Japanese invaders, and established a socialist state based on his own interpretation of Marxism-Leninism, known as Maoism.
Ho Chi Minh was the founder and leader of the Viet Minh, a communist-nationalist movement that fought against the French colonial rule and the Japanese occupation of Vietnam. He became the president of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnam) and the main figure of the Vietnamese War of Independence, which lasted until 1975.
Fidel Castro was the leader of the Cuban Revolution, a guerrilla campaign that overthrew the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista in 1959. He became the prime minister and later the president of Cuba, and established a socialist state aligned with the Soviet Union. He was a close ally and friend of Che Guevara, who served as his minister of industry and commander of the Cuban armed forces.
Nelson Mandela was a leader of the African National Congress (ANC), a political party that opposed the apartheid regime in South Africa. He co-founded the ANC's armed wing, Umkhonto we Sizwe (Spear of the Nation), and was involved in sabotage and guerrilla warfare against the government. He was imprisoned for 27 years, and later became the first black president of South Africa and a global icon of human rights and democracy.
Rosa Luxemburg was a Polish-German Marxist philosopher, economist and revolutionary. She was a founding member of the Spartacus League, a radical socialist group that led the German Revolution of 1918-1919. She was arrested and executed by the Freikorps, a right-wing militia that suppressed the uprising.